[Dakota]

I would suggest buying a better reel, then I would suggest never buying another shakespere again. Unfortunately with reels you get what you pay for, especially the low end stuff.

You cant get some killer deals on pflueger summits/trions/presidents online and at Cabelas/BPS. Awesome reels that will last much longer.

I can't really help with diagnosing the your problem without taking a real close look at it.

 

[Dakota]

my other reel is a pflueger....I bought the wife and I an ugly stick combo in the spring because we were just trying fishing out to see if we liked it. I didn't want to buy a ton of gear if it wasn't something we were going to do (like the damn bicycles I bought that never get ridden)
if it can be salvaged I'd love to make it smooth again rather than disposing of it. I'm looking at another cabela's tourney combo for next spring.

Have you taken it apart and opened it up at all? Is the spool dented or damaged? You may just need to lubricate the gears.

 

[Dakota]

I don't mind spending some money on some good gear. I do not see me spending more than $100 on a combo. My cabela's tourney/pfluger combo was $79 on sale and is wonderful. that's about my price point.

If I spent $50 on a reel that would be ok. I know nothing about the gear ratios and so on. fishing trout/eyes/bass using almost exclusively 6lb line on the existing ML rods, what particular reel would you think I should most consider?

Here in the next month or two Cabelas will have pfleuger president and summit rod/reel combos for $70-$60. When I see those sales I usually buy one or two. In fact I just looked and they currently have a sale for $70.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/fish...-combos/_/N-1102843/Ns-CATEGORY_SEQ_105791580

If you go to Gift Card Granny you can buy a gift card for another 20% off and really save.

https://www.giftcardgranny.com/buy-gift-cards/cabelas/

 

[Dakota]

Medium refers to the stiffness of the spine in the rod. The spine of a rod is very important if you are interested in using a variety of rods for different fishing applications. A reel doesn't have as much influence on an angler's cast as one might think. There is no doubt it affects casting range, but I think you only really see the difference in extreme instances. Extra-large reel on an ultra light rod.

There are other variable such as line weight, line type, rod length, weight of the bait or lure, and spool size that influence it much more. For example, if you are using monofilament line that is full of memory you wont get any distance, specifically if its twisted or sun damaged.

My experience has been reel quality doesn't really associate with "castability", many of the things I discussed above can drastically increase your casting range. This goes without saying that if you buy a shakespear (sorry newguy), and the spool comes with burs around the top it won't cast well.

It sounds like your outfit is already pretty well balanced, so you probably either have a spool or, most likely, a line problem.